NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State
University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
March 12, 1998
You people who've been eating breakfast all your life, pat yourself on the back. Go on. You deserve it. You realized early on what many of us had to discover later. Breakfast can be the best meal of the day.
I didn't begin eating breakfast in earnest until I was in my 30s. What a waste. But then again, my reasoning was based on a view that breakfast is a meal framed only by extremes. On the one hand, I would gladly rise and shine for a plate overflowing with fried eggs, sausage, hash browns and biscuits. Yet even in my youth I somehow knew that type of early morning eating wasn't sustainable. At the other extreme, I saw an assortment of utterly unappealing choices: a variety of hot and cold cereals, beginning with something akin to gruel and ending with what my mom and dad used to eat, a dry something-or-other named Crumbles.
My decision to do breakfast reminds me of a conversion, because it was based on a multipart revelation. First, I discovered that what I ate for breakfast wouldn't end up around my waist because my body would burn the calories. The trick of that seeming contradiction involves what I eat: fruit. Pears and bananas are my favorite, although grapes, strawberries, blueberries and oranges rank right up there too. As do pineapple, kiwi, nectarines, peaches and the occasional plum.
I must have some sort of oral fixation. I love the texture of foods almost as much as the taste. There's something else I like too: volume. Fruit is one food that lets me get by with eating to excess. I now eat a bowl of fruit for breakfast at least four days a week, and most often it's five or six days a week. Remember the `60s TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies"? I'm talking a Jethro bowl of fruit—two or three oranges or pears or a pint of strawberries or blueberries.
Along with fruit, I'll usually eat a multigrain English muffin topped off with whipped honey. Sometimes I eat homemade bars, and here's where eating breakfast really gets exciting. You see, I love date bars, those crumbly concoctions that most people nibble at as a dessert. But dates are high in fiber and low in fat, and in the recipe I use, I've substituted vegetable oil for the butter and shortening in the crust. I've also cut back on the sugar. So without the slightest hint of guilt, I now treat myself to date bars as the sun peeks above the eastern horizon.
At certain times of the year, I even have lefse for breakfast. I sometimes smear peanut butter and honey on it or the strawberry-rhubarb jam my wife makes. Mmm. Mmm. Good. And again, to my way of thinking at least, virtually no guilt.
So, to all you non-breakfast eaters, listen up. Breakfast can be tasty and unusual—and you can eat a lot if you're so inclined, as long as you mostly fill up on low-fat, high-fiber foods. Give it a try. Experiment. Who knows what might turn out to be your favorite. Here's a recipe to get you started.
Breakfast Bars
Yield: 12 servingsIngredients:
3 unpeeled baking apples, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups sweetened, dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon allspice
1 cup orange juice
1 cup brown sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon soda
1½ cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup vegetable oilProcedure: Coat apples with lemon juice immediately after chopping to prevent discoloration; drain. Combine apples, cranberries, allspice and orange juice in saucepan and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Mix together remaining ingredients; press slightly more than half the mixture into the bottom of a 13x9x2 baking pan that's been lightly sprayed with cooking oil. Spread filling; top with remaining crumble mixture and press lightly. Bake at 400 F for 25 to 30 minutes.
What's Your Take on This, Julie?
According to some nutritionists, we should try to eat like kings at breakfast, princes at lunch and paupers at dinner. And what better time to start eating likes Kings at breakfast than in March, which is National Nutrition Month. North Dakota is home to many excellent breakfast foods, including grains and milk. Eggs sometimes have been treated as scoundrels, but their high-quality protein makes them good breakfast companions a couple of times a week too.
Children often are the focus of breakfast campaigns, but adults are just as likely to skip breakfast. Children perform better in school when their brains have fuel, and the same probably holds true of adults at home or on the job. Grabbing donuts and coffee when you're starving by mid-morning sets up a pattern of "I've already blown it anyway" eating for the day.
A nutritious breakfast should include some complex carbohydrates (bread or cereal), protein (milk, peanut butter), vitamin C (orange juice or other vitamin C juice) and some fat for satiety. Try for a wide variety of foods every day to keep breakfast from becoming humdrum. Some people prefer sandwiches, cooked vegetables or leftovers.
Some breakfast skippers are slow starters in the morning who repeatedly hit the snooze button before crawling out of bed. If you fall into this category, try setting out cereal boxes, bowls and spoons, and mixing the juice the night before. Or try a commuter breakfast by filling your travel mug with milk or juice, and grabbing a high-fiber muffin and a banana to eat on the way. Or make these breakfast bars and freeze them in single servings for future quick breakfasts.
This recipe combines grains and fruit. Add a glass of milk and a piece of fruit to work toward five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Each bar (one-twelfth of the recipe) provides 310 calories, 14 grams of fat, one-fourth of the recommended vitamin C and no cholesterol. If you're counting fat grams, try a smaller portion.
This breakfast bar is so tasty that the anticipation might motivate you to get up before your alarm clock rings. Or you could set your alarm clock 15 minutes early.
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Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136
Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187
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